Gurley graduate took local lessons around the world

In 1953 the Ohman family moved to western Nebraska and the town of Gurley. And began Diana Ohman's global journey.

“I spent my whole growing up years here,” she said after the conclusion of Gurley's centennial festivities on Saturday. “I spent 17 years here. I graduated here in 1968.”

From high school in Gurley, she went on to a teaching career, an elected office with the state of Wyoming, and a decade running an education system in Europe. After that, Ohman traversed the Pacific, covering South Korea, Japan and the islands.

She now works for Veteran's Affairs.

But Ohman's time in Gurley was well spent, life in the rural Nebraska community just north of Sidney providing a much broader foundation.

“It was very small but it was a wonderful place to get true American and family values,” she pointed out. “And even though it was small, you can take those values with you wherever you go, apply them the same way as we did here in Gurley.”

After graduating from the now defunct high school, Ohman applied the lessons learned in college at Casper and the University of Wyoming. She put her teaching degree to work right away, starting as an elementary school instructor and ending as a principal.

Then she turned her attention to public office, defeating a three term incumbent for the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, then winning the post of Secretary of State, stepping down after one term.

“I said no more,” Ohman noted. “Nobody should ever run for more than two terms.”

Leaving her post as Secretary of State, Ohman found her next post at the Department of Defence Dependents Schools in Europe. She directed a system covering ten countries, from Icland to the Azores.

“I was there for two years then my family had the feeling that it was time to come home,” she explained.

She now serves as Veteran's Affairs Director, supervising 44 National Cemetery sites in nine Midwestern states.

Her global view stands in stark contrast to the world she experienced as a child in Gurley.

“Oh it was so fun, it was much like a family scattered over several blocks,” she recalled. “If mom didn’t know where we were, she knew who to call to get it figured out real quickly, because she knew who are friends were.”

That bond of family and community she believes is critical as America's education system progresses.

“I think it would well serve all of us in our country if we would come home to the values from which we grew up,” she said. “Our moms and dads need to think about if I send my children to school, and if they don’t understand or know anything about discipline, have I done the right thing by own children, by my school where my children attend, by my community. If we would all think back just a little bit about what it really takes to have a flourishing milieu where everyone progresses it would make a very large difference. I think sometimes we have forgotten the we have thrown it out the window we don’t draw on that experience and those values like we should.”

Ohman’s education took her throughout the world, but her foundation remains firmly planted in panhandle dust. She was proud to serve as guest speaker for Gurley's 100th anniversary.

“It is so good to be home, it’s so good to be an educator, it’s really fun to think about our roots from which we come from,” she said. “It’s good to try to apply them to the future. I have good feeling about the future, I think America, small communities and states like Nebraska will work it through. I think there is a way and I think it is because we have the values from small school and small communities like this one, Gurley, Nebraska.”